how 2 IMPROVING YOUR PC EXPERIENCE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE
I have an AMD FX-57 with 2GB of RAM on an
Asus A8N-SLI Premium with two Asus 7800
GTXs running in SLI. Everything is clocked at
stock speeds. I recently replaced the factory
CPU cooler with a Zalman CNPS7700-CU, but I
began to have problems. Windows XP ran fine,
but many games, even some older ones, such
as Painkiller, locked up or caused a blue screen.
After trying numerous software-based fixes, I
was at my wit’s end. I decided to remove the
Zalman and reinstall the original cooler. Once I
did that, everything ran OK.
At idle, the CPU is 47 C and the mobo
is 52 C. The Nvidia control panel says my
GPU temp is 64 C. While playing Painkiller,
the temps will go up to 61 C, 56 C, and 85 C,
respectively. My room temp is about 30 C.
These temps seem high compared to some of
the numbers you report in your cooler reviews,
especially at idle. Do I need to be concerned
with the GPU’s temp?
—Jim Schreiner
The temperatures you’re seeing on both
your CPU and GPU are fairly consistent
with what typically happens when you use
your computer. When we crank up our Lab
test machines to a 100 percent load, we
frequently see CPU temperatures in the high
40s. Granted, we’re using FX-60s, whereas
you have an FX-57, but they should be in the
same ballpark in terms of temps. The Doctor
isn’t entirely sure why you’d be seeing a
BSD after you install the Zalman, unless the
fan isn’t working or you have a bad seal.
Reinstall the cooler; be sure to use thermal
grease. Also see if you bumped something
you shouldn’t have. If you want better per-
formance, make sure the fan speed on your
cooler is cranked up.
On a side note, your graphics cards
seem a bit hot. You should definitely triple-
check and make sure you don’t have any
overclocking going on through the Nvidia
control panel. Barring that, you’re sort
of stuck with the GPU coolers you have,
unless you want to get an aftermarket
model or install
water cooling, which
the Doctor hesitates
to recommend,
as he hates being
accused of using it
as the de facto solu-tion for all heat-related issues. Remember,
a fan only does as much good as the
ambient air surrounding it. And in a non-
air-conditioned room in the summertime,
you’ll certainly see higher computer tem-
peratures. You don’t need to be concerned
with the temperatures you’re seeing,
but running a card that hot will certainly
shorten its lifespan. If you’re seeing any
graphical artifacts while sending demons
back to the grave, however, you should
cool those suckers down.THE WIDE WORLD OF GAMING
I just purchased a 19-inch widescreen LCD
with a 2ms pixel-response time. I’ve been told
that to keep the picture from being stretched,
the LCD must run at its native resolution. That’s
all fine and dandy, as long as it doesn’t make
the icons too small. Do games support wide-
screen resolutions, or will all the people I take
down in Counter-Strike and Battlefield 2 look
short and wide? I guess that would make them
easier shots, but I’d rather have proportional
resolutions than, well, anything else. Basically,
did I make a mistake in purchasing a wide-
screen for games?
—Luke MacDonaldYou’re not alone in opting for a widescreen
LCD—as you’ve probably noticed, that
formfactor is now pervading the market.
Consequently, almost all modern games
(including Counter-Strike) will run in a wide
format. Most will offer wide resolutions
from within the menu, but in games that
don’t, it’s possible to enable a wide format
with a command line (go to the Widescreen
Gaming Forum http://tinyurl.com/yug3fy
for specific game instructions). Still, a
widescreen format is impossible in some
games; in the case of Battlefield 2, EA says
it would be an unfair advantage for only
some players to have a wide vantage point.
In such instances, you can either play with
the stretched view or adjust the picture to a
4:3 aspect ratio in your videocard’s control
panel—this will add black or gray bars to
the sides of the picture.Ask the Doctor
Diagnosing and curing your PC problems
A digital enchantress transformed the Doctor into his current prob-
lem-solving form after he accidentally team-killed her in a World of
Warcraft battleground. If he doesn’t solve your computer problems
( [email protected] ) by the time the last pixel in his LCD
monitor burns out, he’ll be doomed to remain the Doctor for all time!